Just keeping Jed honest: First calculator: 2000 BC Inventor: Sumerians
http://www.thecalculatorsite.com/articles/units/history-of-the-calculator.php First Electronic Calculator: The story of the electronic calculator really begins in the late 1930s as the world began to prepare for renewed war. To calculate the trigonometry required to drop bombs ‘into a pickle barrel’ from 30,000 feet, to hit a 30-knot Japanese warship with a torpedo or to bring down a diving Stuka with an anti aircraft gun required constantly updated automated solutions. These were provided respectively by the Sperry-Norden bombsight, the US Navy’s Torpedo Data Computer and the Kerrison Predictor AA fire control system. All were basically mechanical devices using geared wheels and rotating cylinders, but producing electrical outputs that could be linked to weapon systems. During the Second World War, the challenges of code-breaking produced the first all-electronic computer, *Colossus*. But this was a specialised machine that basically performed “exclusive or” (XOR) Boolean algorithms. :) On Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 4:12 PM, Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com> wrote: > Lennart Thornros <lenn...@thornros.com> wrote: > > >> There is theory called the S-curve theory. Many examples from the vacuum >> tube / transistor evolution and calculators mechanic / solid state. Plenty >> of big companies went belly up as they did not react fast enough. >> > > So did many small companies. > > > >> This is why large corporations are a bad thing. They have no flexibility >> . . . >> > > The transistor was invented at AT&T, and the calculator at HP and TI. > Those were large corporations. Your own examples show that sometimes big > corporations are good thing, and they sometimes have flexibility. > > Small companies often lack flexibility. > > - Jed > >
